Smugglinghttp://www.businessinsider.com/category/smuggling
en-usFri, 09 Dec 2016 11:52:15 -0500Fri, 09 Dec 2016 11:52:15 -0500The latest news on Smuggling from Business Insiderhttp://static3.businessinsider.com/assets/images/bilogo-250x36-wide-rev.pngBusiness Insiderhttp://www.businessinsider.com
http://www.businessinsider.com/criminal-organisation-smuggling-ukrainians-into-the-uk-is-shut-down-2016-11More than 100 arrested as police shutdown a criminal group smuggling Ukrainians into the UKhttp://www.businessinsider.com/criminal-organisation-smuggling-ukrainians-into-the-uk-is-shut-down-2016-11
Fri, 11 Nov 2016 07:23:29 -0500Barbara Tasch
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5825b849dd0895e3368b47c5-1028/rtsrfy0.jpg" alt="Ukraine, Russia, Crimea, Luhansk People's Republic" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko" data-mce-caption="Members of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic forces stand guard as residents queue at pass through a check point located on the troops contact line between pro-Moscow rebels and Ukrainian troops, in the settlement of Stanytsia Luhanska in Luhansk region, Ukraine, October 9, 2016." /></p><p>More than 100 people were arrested in October when police shut down a multi-national criminal organisation smuggling Ukrainian citizens into the UK and Ireland.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.europol.europa.eu/newsroom/news/more-100-arrests-in-major-international-migrant-smuggling-operation" target="_blank">Europol, the European Police Office, announced the arrests on Friday</a>.</p>
<p>They were made during Operation Kolso, an investigation that was started in 2015 between the Polish Border Guard and the Spanish National Police.</p>
<p>The investigation then expanded as links were found in several countries, at which point Europol&rsquo;s European Migrant Smuggling Centre became involved.</p>
<p>In March 2016, one of the smugglers' main leaders was arrested in Spain and over 100 ID cards and Polish passports were seized.</p>
<p>October's 115 arrests centered around forgery of administrative documents and the facilitation of illegal immigration. A<span>mong the people arrested were the most senior ones running the organisation.</span><span></span>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span>The arrests were made at 12 different airports in Spain including Barcelona, Madrid, and Ibiza.</span></p>
<p>Ukrainian migratory flows to the European Union have steadily increased since the Crimean crisis. Ukrainians fleeing the conflict generally pass through Poland, where they can secure a tourist visa. They then move on to other European countries using forged Polish identification documents, Europol found.</p>
<p>The Russian-Ukrainian conflict started in 2014 with numerous Russian incursions into Ukrainian territory and reached its pinnacle when Russia annexed Crimea, a region that had been Ukrainian since 1954. Since then, battles have been raging in eastern Ukraine at its Russian border in a continuing <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&amp;ion=1&amp;espv=2&amp;ie=UTF-8#q=number%20of%20deaths%20ukraine" target="_blank">conflict that has killed over 9,000 people</a>.</p>
<p>Migration to the United Kingdom has been a hotly debated topic over the past few years, gaining more traction since the start of the refugee crisis in 2015, with many British people citing 'uncontrolled' immigration from Europe as one of the main reasons for voting to leave the European Union.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/criminal-organisation-smuggling-ukrainians-into-the-uk-is-shut-down-2016-11#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-spot-massive-hole-sun-coronal-hole-video-2016-12">NASA just spotted a massive hole growing on the sun — here’s what it means</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-no-running-high-for-drug-smuggler-nabbed-in-italy-2016-10An alert Italian customs official caught $2.2 million worth of cocaine hidden in running shoeshttp://www.businessinsider.com/afp-no-running-high-for-drug-smuggler-nabbed-in-italy-2016-10
Sun, 30 Oct 2016 18:19:00 -0400
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/581465145124c9134bfba13e-800/afp-no-running-high-for-drug-smuggler-nabbed-in-italy.jpg" alt="The drug haul would have had a street value of two million euros (.2m), the Italian financial police said" border="0" /></p><p>Rome (AFP) - How much jogging can one person do? On holiday? In Rome?</p>
<p>An alert Italian customs officer asking those questions has exposed the latest ingenious ploy of Latin American drugs traffickers: replacing the shock-absorbing gel in running shoes with liquid cocaine.</p>
<p>"Only an expert would have been able to tell the liquid wasn't the usual gel," Italy's financial police said Saturday following the detention of a Brazilian national on charges of smuggling seven kilograms (15 pounds) of the narcotic into Italy.</p>
<p>The arrest followed a random check on passengers arriving at Rome's main airport from Sao Paulo, Brazil.</p>
<p>Officers became suspicious when the man was found to have packed six pairs of sports shoes for what was supposed to be a short break in the Italian capital.</p>
<p>Closer examination of the shoes uncovered a drugs haul which would have had a street value of two million euros ($2.2m), the financial police said.</p>
<p><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/57d82485077dcc5e1a8b4637-840/shoes with cocaine in them.jpg" alt="Shoes with cocaine in them" data-mce-source="US Customs and Border Protection" data-mce-caption="A Mexican woman was stopped at a border crossing in Texas and found to have cocaine in the soles of her shoes." data-link="https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/2016-09-06-000000/woman-cocaine-shoes-stopped-el-paso-cbp-officers" /></p>
<p>Footwear has popped up as a smuggling method in the past. In September, a woman was stopped on the US-Mexico border with cocaine <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/woman-stopped-cocaine-shoes-us-mexico-border-2016-9" target="_blank">hidden in her sneakers' soles</a>.</p>
<p>And European officials have come across&nbsp;some other peculiar smuggling attempts in recent months.</p>
<p>In March, German authorities intercepted a Colombian woman with <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-germany-catches-woman-smuggling-cocaine-in-breast-implants-2016-3" target="_blank">cocaine hidden in her breast implants</a>. Spanish police stopped a shipment with almost <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cocaine-seized-in-shipment-of-bananas-in-spain-2016-9" target="_blank">2,000 pounds of cocaine hidden among bananas</a> in September, and this month Italian police found $84 million worth of cocaine <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/italian-mafia-ndrangheta-cocaine-smuggling-2016-10" target="_blank">just floating in the Mediterranean</a>.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/italian-mafia-ndrangheta-cocaine-smuggling-2016-10" >An Italian criminal group is trying a new, low-tech way to smuggle cocaine into Europe</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-no-running-high-for-drug-smuggler-nabbed-in-italy-2016-10#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-cocaine-prices-barely-moved-america-2016-9">Why the price of cocaine in America has barely moved in decades</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/san-diego-record-cash-seizure-and-drug-cartel-money-laundering-2016-8San Diego's largest cash seizure ever may shed light on an overlooked aspect of the drug tradehttp://www.businessinsider.com/san-diego-record-cash-seizure-and-drug-cartel-money-laundering-2016-8
Mon, 29 Aug 2016 11:08:13 -0400Christopher Woody
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/57c38c2eb996eb26008b4e13-840/8-26-16 cash stack 1.jpg" alt="Cash seized by US border patrol" data-mce-source="US Customs and Border Protection" data-mce-caption="US border agents seized more than $3 million in cash from two vehicles near San Diego on August 23, 2016." data-link="https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/2016-08-26-000000/border-patrol-arrests-duo-bulk-cash-smuggling" /></p><p></p>
<p>On Tuesday, US border agents patrolling north of San Diego intercepted two vehicles carrying more than <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/2016-08-26-000000/border-patrol-arrests-duo-bulk-cash-smuggling" target="_blank">$3 million in cash</a>, in what a top official called the largest money bust in the sector's history.</p>
<p>Two men, a 41-year-old Mexican citizen and a 53-year-old US citizen, were taken into custody after agents, who suspected their two vehicles to be traveling in tandem, stopped and <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/2016-08-26-000000/border-patrol-arrests-duo-bulk-cash-smuggling" target="_blank">searched the vehicles</a>.</p>
<p>One car had vacuum-sealed <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/2016-08-26-000000/border-patrol-arrests-duo-bulk-cash-smuggling" target="_blank">bundles</a> of $33,880 in cash in the center console, while the other had $3 million in cash packaged in eight boxes in the trunk.</p>
<p>"This amount of money represents the largest currency seizure ever in San Diego Sector," Chief Patrol Agent Richard A. Barlow said in a <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/2016-08-26-000000/border-patrol-arrests-duo-bulk-cash-smuggling" target="_blank">release</a>. Agents confiscated "stacks of crisp $100, $20, $10, and $1 bills," <a href="http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/aug/26/million-dollar-cash-smuggle-seizure/" target="_blank">according</a> to The San Diego Union-Tribune.</p>
<p>It's not yet clear why the men taken into custody were carrying such a large amount of cash, and they currently face <a href="http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/aug/26/million-dollar-cash-smuggle-seizure/" target="_blank">charges related</a> only to currency smuggling. But if this incident is related to drug trafficking, it illustrates a vital part of that industry that is often overlooked: smuggling money.</p>
<p>And for <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/el-chapo-guzman-strange-drug-smuggling-methods" target="_blank">the multibillion-dollar drug trade</a>, a seizure of $3 million may just be a blip.</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/56e9a3dc91058427008b6c7f-840/us drug spending.jpg" alt="US drug spending" data-mce-source="Office of National Drug Control Policy/White House Drug Control Report 2015" data-mce-caption="US drug users spend hundreds of billions of dollars one illegal drugs from 2000 to 2010." data-link="https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/ondcp/policy-and-research/2015_data_supplement_final.pdf" /></p>
<p>Once drugs are smuggled into the US, distributed to resellers, broken up, and resold, the cash used to buy them begins to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/where-drug-money-goes-2016-3" target="_blank">filter back to the source</a>.</p>
<p>Some of the money gets <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/where-drug-money-goes-2016-3" target="_blank">apportioned to intermediaries</a>, many of whom keep that cash in the US, but a large amount of it must get back to criminal organizations outside the US.</p>
<p>There are numerous ways to do this, but the most common method is that which US border agents disrupted in San Diego this week: bulk cash smuggling.</p>
<div title="Page 105">
<p>"Currently, bulk cash smuggling is still the most widely-reported method used by [transnational criminal organizations, or TCOs] to move illicit proceeds," the Drug Enforcement Administration reported in its 2015 National Drug Threat Assessment.</p>
<p>"In 2014, law enforcement officials reported over 4,000 bulk cash seizures to the NSS totaling over $382.2 million in US Currency (USC)."</p>
<p>Given the number of potential customers there and its proximity to the border, it's not surprising that these seizures often take place in California.</p>
<p>"Mexican TCOs routinely transport large sums of currency from the United States to Mexico via tractor-trailers," the DEA report noted.</p>
<p>"Due to the large volume of tractor-trailers crossing the US- Mexico border, Mexican TCOs are reportedly under the impression that this method of transporting bulk currency is minimally detected by law enforcement," the report said, adding that couriers sometimes carry the cash across the border, using various methods to avoid scrutiny.</p>
<p>The August 23 seizure comes a little over three months after federal agents <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/fbi-seizes-23-million-near-disneyland-2016-5" target="_blank">raided a home just blocks from Disneyland in Anaheim, California, discovering $2.3 million</a> in cash believed to belong to traffickers with ties to Sinaloa state, the home turf of vaunted kingpin Joaqu&iacute;n "El Chapo" Guzm&aacute;n, whose Sinaloa cartel has <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jalisco-cartel-fighting-for-control-of-tijuana-2016-3" target="_blank">a presence across the border in Tijuana</a>.</p>
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/56d1fc3f6e97c662008ba293-2298/tijuana us mexico border crossing.jpg" alt="Tijuana US Mexico border crossing" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Carlos Barria" data-mce-caption="People wait in line to cross the border between Mexico and the US in Tijuana, Mexico, May 6, 2006." /></p>
<p>While it doesn't appear that the two incidents are related, they do give some idea of how much illicit cash is flowing through Southern California. And the area, Los Angeles in particular, is also a bastion of a more sophisticated scheme to move illicit profits: trade-based money laundering.</p>
<p>"The epicenter for a lot of the money laundering for the Mexican cartels is Los Angeles," Mike Vigil, a former chief of international operations for the DEA, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/where-drug-money-goes-2016-3" target="_blank">told Business Insider earlier this year</a>, "and they use the fashion district to launder money."</p>
<p>A fall 2014 investigation revealed that cash was being dropped off at clothing and textile companies in the city, which then used the cash to buy goods that were shipped to Mexico to be resold for pesos that eventually <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sinaloa-cartel-launder-money-clothes-imports-colombia-2016-8" target="_blank">made their way to the Sinaloa and Knights Templar cartels</a>.</p>
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/56e9a346910584155c8b6ad1-1102/screen shot 2016-03-16 at 1.53.06 pm.png" alt="US drug trafficking money laundering" data-mce-source="2015 DEA NDTA" data-mce-caption="Trade-based money laundering involves purchasing goods in bulk amounts with profits from drug sales, and then reselling those goods." data-link="http://www.dea.gov/divisions/hq/2015/hq110415.shtml" /></p>
<p>"The Sinaloa Cartel used US drug proceeds to purchase clothes imported from China that were stored in the targeted fashion businesses' warehouses," the DEA said in its 2015 report. "The clothes were then shipped across the border into Mexico for resale and the profits placed into the Mexican financial system as legitimate proceeds."</p>
<p>Guzm&aacute;n's Sinaloa cartel has also reportedly <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sinaloa-cartel-launder-money-clothes-imports-colombia-2016-8" target="_blank">taken advantage of free-trade agreements to launder money</a> in Latin America, circumventing tariffs on apparel and reselling goods bought with dirty cash to earn a legitimate profit.</p>
<p>These schemes aren't limited to clothes.</p>
<p>"They used commodities-based money laundering," <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/where-drug-money-goes-2016-3" target="_blank">Vigil told Business Insider</a>. "Where they buy, for example, gold and diamonds here, and then they smuggle them into Mexico. They're sold over there and all of a sudden, voil&agrave;, you go from US dollars to Mexican pesos."</p>
</div><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-coast-guard-busts-11-tons-cocaine-pacific-ocean-2016-8" >The US Coast Guard busted 11 tons of cocaine being smuggled in the Pacific Ocean</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/san-diego-record-cash-seizure-and-drug-cartel-money-laundering-2016-8#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-border-wall-drug-war-dea-2016-7">EX-DEA AGENT: Trump’s border wall would 'serve no purpose’ in the war on drugs</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/armed-civilians-patrol-mexican-border-2016-8These are the armed civilians who patrol the US border with Mexicohttp://www.businessinsider.com/armed-civilians-patrol-mexican-border-2016-8
Sun, 28 Aug 2016 09:30:00 -0400David Choi
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/57727d6c88e4a78c148b457c-2400/_kjp0500-1.jpg" alt="Arizona Border Recon 2" data-mce-source="Kremer Johnson Photography" data-link="http://kremerjohnson.com/" /></p><p></p>
<p>The&nbsp;US border with&nbsp;Mexico spans <a href="https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/578/~/border-in-miles">1,989 miles</a>.&nbsp;And while US Customs and Border Protection agents are tasked with patrolling America's borders, a volunteer group of armed civilians named&nbsp;<a href="https://www.arizonaborderrecon.org/">Arizona Border Recon</a>&nbsp;intercepts people illegally crossing into the US and hands them over to authorities.</p>
<p>Below are portraits taken by&nbsp;<a href="http://kremerjohnson.com/"><span>Cory Johnson and Neil Kremer</span></a><span>&nbsp;of Arizona Border Recon members.</span></p>
<p><em>All photos republished with permission.</em></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-border-fence-climbers-how-should-the-border-patrol-respond-2016-4" >Border fence climbers: How should the Border Patrol respond?</a></strong></p>
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<br/><br/><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/armed-civilians-patrol-mexican-border-2016-8#/#-4">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> http://www.businessinsider.com/letter-surgeon-general-sent-every-doctor-on-opioids-2016-8The surgeon general just sent a worrisome letter to every doctor in Americahttp://www.businessinsider.com/letter-surgeon-general-sent-every-doctor-on-opioids-2016-8
Fri, 26 Aug 2016 09:58:00 -0400Erin Brodwin
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/57c04125b996eb5d128b4980-2400/ap369456341694.jpg" alt="vivek murthy surgeon general nominee" data-mce-source="AP Photo / Charles Dharapak" data-mce-caption="Dr. Vivek Murthy, President Obama's Surgeon General nominee, testifies on Capitol Hill." /></p><p>America's doctor just knocked on the doors of every US physician across the country.</p>
<p>Virtually, at least.</p>
<p>On Thursday, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy sent <a href="http://turnthetiderx.org/">this letter</a> to 2.3 million American doctors asking for their help to curb <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/fentanyl-drug-prince-overdose-deaths-2016-8">what's being called an "unprecedented" epidemic</a> of opioid painkiller overdose deaths.</p>
<p><strong>It's the first time in history that a surgeon general has sent a letter directly to American physicians.</strong></p>
<p>This is a major signal to doctors and the public that it's time for something to be done about the thousands of Americans who are dying each year from overdosing on prescription painkillers like oxycodone, fentanyl, and morphine.</p>
<p>Between 2013 and 2014, deaths from synthetic opioids skyrocketed by 79%, according to <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/index.html">a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Thursday</a>.</p>
<p>Since opioid painkillers slow breathing and act on the same brain systems as heroin, they carry <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/prince-may-have-been-taking-opioid-painkillers">serious risks</a> of overdose and, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/maia-szalavitz-unbroken-brain-treating-addiction-as-a-learning-disorder-2016-4">in rarer cases, addiction</a>. But cases that would normally be rare are happening with increasing regularity as the drugs are being given to so many people. Despite being home to 5% of the world's population, America consumes <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/27/americans-consume-almost-all-of-the-global-opioid-supply.html">80% of its opioids</a>.</p>
<p>These drugs are powerful. Fentanyl, the drug that killed Prince, is roughly 50 times stronger than pure heroin. And although the deadly drug is legal with a doctor's prescription, it's also being made illegally in underground labs and traded across the US.</p>
<p>Still, doctors' prescriptions are a sizeable part of the problem.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.aan.com/uploadedFiles/Website_Library_Assets/Documents/6.Public_Policy/1.Stay_Informed/2.Position_Statements/3.PDFs_of_all_Position_Statements/Position%20and%20Policy%20Documents.pdf">2014 report</a> from the American Academy of Neurology estimates that more than 100,000 Americans have died from prescribed opioids since the late 1990s. Those at highest risk include people between 35 and 54, the report found, and deaths from opioids in this age group have exceeded those from firearms and car crashes.</p>
<p>"As clinicians, we have the unique power to help end this epidemic," Murthy wrote in his letter.</p>
<p>To make matters worse, the drugs are often prescribed alongside other drugs, like tranquilizers, which can raise the chances of accidental overdose and death. Yet they're often prescribed together anyway.</p>
<p>In 2011, <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26143953">31% of prescription-opioid-related overdose deaths</a> involved these two kinds of drugs used together, <a href="https://www.drugabuse.gov/about-nida/legislative-activities/testimony-to-congress/2016/what-science-tells-us-about-opioid-abuse-addiction">according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse</a>. "Unfortunately, too many patients are still co-prescribed opioid pain relievers and benzodiazepines (tranquilizers)," the institute said.</p>
<p><strong>Here's the surgeon general's letter:</strong></p>
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/57c03ffab996eb1d008b4a30-1700/sg opioid letter.jpg" alt="surgeon general opioid letter" data-mce-source="US Surgeon General" /></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mental-physical-effects-of-opioids-2016-5" >What a legal drug that kills more Americans than heroin does to your body and brain</a></strong></p>
<p><strong>READ MORE:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/painkiller-fentanyl-that-killed-prince-was-mislabeled-counterfeit-acetaminophen-hydrocodone-2016-8" >Investigators found the drug that killed Prince in counterfeit pills in his home — and it's part of a much bigger problem with painkillers</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/letter-surgeon-general-sent-every-doctor-on-opioids-2016-8#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/fentanyl-drug-prince-overdose-deaths-2016-8A legal drug that's 50 times stronger than heroin is behind an 'unprecedented' epidemic of overdose deathshttp://www.businessinsider.com/fentanyl-drug-prince-overdose-deaths-2016-8
Thu, 25 Aug 2016 14:09:00 -0400Erin Brodwin
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/57a1f6a1db5ce92a088b4619-800/fentanyl_ampule1.jpg" alt="fentanyl_ampule1" data-mce-source="Erowid Center" data-mce-caption="Ampule of fentanyl in solution" /></p><p>Fentanyl, the drug that killed Prince, is an opioid painkiller that's 50 times stronger than pure heroin.</p>
<p>Although the deadly&nbsp;drug is legal with a doctor's prescription,&nbsp;it's also being made illegally in underground labs and traded across the US.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/index.html">new CDC report, released August 25,</a>&nbsp;found that from 2013 to 2014:</p>
<ul>
<li>Incidents of law-enforcement officers finding drugs containing fentanyl jumped <strong>426%</strong>.</li>
<li>Deaths from synthetic opioids like fentanyl rose by<strong> 79%</strong>.</li>
</ul>
<p>"In contrast to the 2005&ndash;2007 fentanyl overdose outbreak, when deaths were confined to several states, <strong>the current epidemic is unprecedented in scope</strong>," the report states.</p>
<p>Here's what you need to know about it:</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mental-physical-effects-of-opioids-2016-5" >What a legal drug that kills more Americans than heroin does to your body and brain</a></strong></p>
<p><strong>READ MORE:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/painkiller-fentanyl-that-killed-prince-was-mislabeled-counterfeit-acetaminophen-hydrocodone-2016-8" >Investigators found the drug that killed Prince in counterfeit pills in his home — and it's part of a much bigger problem with painkillers</a></strong></p>
<h3>This is fentanyl. It looks like any other prescription painkiller — but it isn't.</h3>
<img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/57596769910584155c8c7ad9-400-300/this-is-fentanyl-it-looks-like-any-other-prescription-painkiller--but-it-isnt.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><h3>Fentanyl, which is also available in a patch or liquid, is 80 to 100 times more powerful than morphine and about 40 to 50 times more potent than 100% pure heroin.</h3>
<img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/55bf8d3b2acae72d5f8bbe59-400-300/fentanyl-which-is-also-available-in-a-patch-or-liquid-is-80-to-100-times-more-powerful-than-morphine-and-about-40-to-50-times-more-potent-than-100-pure-heroin.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p><em>Source: <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ershdb/EmergencyResponseCard_29750022.html">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention</a></em></p></p>
<br/><br/><h3>Still, the drug belongs to a larger class of drugs, known as opioid painkillers, that includes prescription drugs like OxyContin and Vicodin. These drugs work by capitalizing on our body's natural pain-relief system and can result in a surging sense of euphoria.</h3>
<img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/56e0b5a491058428008b5591-400-300/still-the-drug-belongs-to-a-larger-class-of-drugs-known-as-opioid-painkillers-that-includes-prescription-drugs-like-oxycontin-and-vicodin-these-drugs-work-by-capitalizing-on-our-bodys-natural-pain-relief-system-and-can-result-in-a-surging-sense-of-euphoria.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/fentanyl-drug-prince-overdose-deaths-2016-8#/#since-1999-overdose-deaths-involving-opioid-painkillers-have-quadrupled-in-2014-alone-more-than-14000-people-died-from-overdoses-involving-the-drugs-from-2013-to-2014-synthetic-opioid-deaths-increased-by-79-4">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> http://www.businessinsider.com/venezuela-colombia-border-reopening-economic-security-tensions-2016-8After a year of isolation, 'the most miserable country in the world' is 'interested in a new beginning'http://www.businessinsider.com/venezuela-colombia-border-reopening-economic-security-tensions-2016-8
Sat, 13 Aug 2016 12:11:00 -0400Christopher Woody
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/57ae2ef7db5ce91c008b6867-2400/rtsms4j.jpg" alt="Presidents of Venezuela and Colombia" data-mce-source="Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters" data-link="http://pictures.reuters.com/archive/VENEZUELA-COLOMBIA--S1BETUWYFMAB.html" /></p><p></p>
<p>On Friday, a year after shutting its western border and isolating itself from Colombia, Venezuela <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-venezuela-colombia-presidents-say-border-posts-to-reopen-2016-8" target="_blank">announced</a> that the frontier would be reopened.</p>
<p>The news came after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-venezuela-and-colombia-agree-to-gradual-reopening-of-border-2016-8" target="_blank">met with</a> his Colombian counterpart, Juan Manuel Santos, in the western Venezuelan city of Puerto Ordaz.</p>
<p>The leaders settled on a gradual reopening of their countries' border crossings, with five border checkpoints opening for pedestrians from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. each day, starting Saturday.</p>
<p>Within a month, cars should be able to cross the border, and more crossing points will open over the coming year, the two leaders <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/venezuela-to-reopen-colombia-border-1470962864" target="_blank">said</a>. Prior to the closure, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-venezuela-and-colombia-agree-to-gradual-reopening-of-border-2016-8" target="_blank">100,000 people crossed</a> the border daily; that number dropped to 3,000 a day after the border was shut.</p>
<p>Maduro <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/venezuelas-border-crisis-2015-9" target="_blank">shuttered the frontier in August last year</a> in what he said was an effort to crackdown on the "<a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/venezuela-to-reopen-colombia-border-1470962864" target="_blank">plague</a>" of smugglers and paramilitary groups who he accused of trying to undermine Venezuela's economy and its socialist government. Venezuela's border region has become a hotbed for smuggling of various&nbsp;items, like drugs and weapons, but also of consumer goods and Venezuela's price-controlled gasoline.</p>
<p>The closing appeared only to slow, not stop, smuggling. The main routes were placed under heavy guard, but "<span>river and jungle crossings opened up and many said they simply paid border guards a little extra to make the crossing," Reuters <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-venezuela-colombia-presidents-say-border-posts-to-reopen-2016-8" target="_blank">reported</a>.</span></p>
<p>As part of his campaign to rid the region of threats, Maduro's government also <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/venezuela-state-of-emergency-before-elections-2015-8" target="_blank">deported many of the Colombians</a> living in the area illegally, some of whom were refugees from Colombia's protracted civil conflict.</p>
<p><span><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/55e9d7f0bd86ef15008b834d-2200/colombia-venezuela-border.jpg" alt="Colombia Venezuela border" data-mce-source="Reuters" data-mce-caption="A man shows a paper to a Venezuelan soldier, while he waits to try to cross the Simon Bolivar international bridge, on the border with Colombia, at San Antonio in Tachira state, Venezuela August 22, 2015." /></span></p>
<p><span><span>Friday's announcement signaled a thaw in the tensions that festered over the last year. <span>"We're interested in a new beginning in economic and commercial relations with all of Colombia's productive sectors," <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-venezuela-colombia-presidents-say-border-posts-to-reopen-2016-8" target="_blank">Maduro said</a> while seated next to Santos, in front of a picture of Latin American independence hero, Simon Bolivar.</span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Santos noted that bilateral talks in preparation for opening the border had been going on for months and that both countries would guarantee security and help curb smuggling, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-venezuela-colombia-presidents-say-border-posts-to-reopen-2016-8" target="_blank">according</a> to Reuters.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>For Maduro &mdash; who runs what the libertarian Cato Institute calls "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/drought-floods-and-shortages-in-venezuela-2016-4" target="_blank">the most miserable country in the world</a>" because of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/venezuela-heading-toward-hyperinflation-2016-7" target="_blank">economic problems</a> like rampant inflation and widespread shortages of basic goods &mdash; the confrontation with Colombia over the border gave an international facade to problems at home.</span></span></p>
<p>"Now this was a move in international relations, but it really had much more to do with domestic causes," <a href="http://venezuelablog.tumblr.com/post/147954144184/what-the-situation-in-venezuela-means-for-the" target="_blank">said David Smilde</a>, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America, on the Trend Lines podcast in late July. "It was because there were legislative elections coming along. It was because of this terrible problem with scarcities, and it was because of this problem with crime"</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/573b70145124c92302fd0a8d-800/venezuela-leader-sees-disappearance-of-opposition-legislature-2016-5.jpg" alt="Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro speaks in front of images of South American hero Simon Bolivar during a news conference at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela May 17, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins" data-mce-source="Thomson Reuters" data-mce-caption="Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro speaks in front of images of South American hero Simon Bolivar during a news conference at Miraflores Palace in Caracas" /></p>
<p>"So Maduro used the situation at the border with Colombia to say, 'well, the crime is being caused by paramilitaries, and they're also using contraband to try and undermine the revolution, and therefore we need to close this border,'" Smilde added.</p>
<p>"The closure of the border has been a total disaster," said Anabella Abadi, an economist with ODH Grupo Consultor in Caracas, <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/venezuela-to-reopen-colombia-border-1470962864" target="_blank">told</a> The Wall Street Journal. "It hasn&rsquo;t changed anything for the country as a whole or even for the border states. In fact, things have gotten worse."</p>
<p>Venezuela's currency, the bolivar, has <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/venezuela-to-reopen-colombia-border-1470962864" target="_blank">lost one-third</a> of its value against the US dollar on the black market, and the country's economy will likely shrink 10% this year.</p>
<p>As <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/venezuela-heading-toward-hyperinflation-2016-7" target="_blank">Venezuela's economy has worsened</a>, particularly the debilitating scarcity that has people standing in line for hours to buy ever dwindling supplies of basic products, the border closure has made life harder for Venezuelans in the region by keeping them from crossing the border to buy more expensive but more readily available essentials.</p>
<p>The border closure also wounded Venezuelan industrial and agricultural production, as farmers and others were less able to go to Colombia to buy seeds and raw materials that have become unavailable in Venezuela.</p>
<p><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/578cd62b4321f16c018b8e59-2400/rtsic0o.jpg" alt="Venezuela Colombia border crossing" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Carlos Eduardo Ramirez" data-mce-caption="People line up, right, to cross over the Simon Bolivar international bridge to Colombia to take advantage of the temporary border opening as others come back after shopping in San Antonio del Tachira, Venezuela, July 16, 2016." /></p>
<p>About 65% of arable land in Venezuela's agricultural Andes region has been left fallow this year because of lack of seeds and fertilizer, agribusiness lobby Fedeagro <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/venezuela-to-reopen-colombia-border-1470962864" target="_blank">told</a> The Wall Street Journal. "Going to Colombia to buy inputs was our only way to plant something in the past," Fedeagro head Tony Pestana <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/venezuela-to-reopen-colombia-border-1470962864" target="_blank">told The Journal</a>.</p>
<p>Several times in recent weeks, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/venezuela-border-crossing-opening-economic-tension-2016-7" target="_blank">thousands of Venezuelans have flooded over the border</a> to the Colombian town of Cucuta after Venezuelan authorities allowed temporary openings at crossings in western Venezuela's Tachira state.</p>
<p>On one weekend, more than 120,000 people <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-venezuela-and-colombia-agree-to-gradual-reopening-of-border-2016-8" target="_blank">streamed</a> across the border, and some Venezuelans made all-night <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-venezuela-and-colombia-agree-to-gradual-reopening-of-border-2016-8" target="_blank">road trips</a> to get to the border area in time for the scheduled openings.</p>
<p>"So this [border closure] has had a huge impact on both the Venezuelan side and the Colombia side because there's so much cross-border economics, and it's something that has a real big impact still," Smilde said.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-indicts-venezuela-officials-drug-trafficking-2016-8" >The US government is zeroing in on a suspected 'global hub of drug trafficking'</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/venezuela-colombia-border-reopening-economic-security-tensions-2016-8#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cocaine-hidden-in-frozen-strawberries-colombia-police-drugs-2016-7">Police in Colombia seized half a tonne of cocaine hidden in frozen strawberries</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-carfentanil-the-elephant-sedativeThe newest threat in the US overdose epidemic is 10,000 times stronger than morphine — and it's typically used on elephantshttp://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-carfentanil-the-elephant-sedative
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 14:33:00 -0400Erin Brodwin
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/55bf8d3b2acae72d5f8bbe59-800/fentanyl_ampule1.jpg" alt="fentanyl_ampule1" data-mce-source="Erowid Center" data-mce-caption="Ampule of fentanyl in solution" /></p><p>Fentanyl, the opioid painkiller&nbsp;that killed Prince and is 50 times stronger than morphine, pales in comparison to a new drug called&nbsp;carfentanil.</p>
<p>Carfentanil is a drug so strong that it's used to sedate elephants. It's <a href="https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/carfentanil#section=Top">100 times as potent as fentanyl</a>,&nbsp;which makes it roughly <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=eJW4vmjSqEYC&amp;pg=PA74&amp;lpg=PA74&amp;dq#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false">10,000 times stronger</a> than morphine.</p>
<p>And now it's showing up on the street.</p>
<p>Last week, a 36-year-old Ohio man suspected of selling carfentanil as heroin was indicted in connection with a death on July 10, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-a-new-threat-in-fight-against-overdoses-elephant-sedative-2016-7">the Associated Press reported</a>.</p>
<p>But carfentanil is&nbsp;just one part of the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-fentanyl-the-drug-that-killed-prince">far bigger issue of painkiller use and abuse</a>.</p>
<p>Read on to find out where the deadly drug is likely&nbsp;being made, what it looks like, and what it does:</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mental-physical-effects-of-opioids-2016-5" >What a legal drug that kills more Americans than heroin does to your body and brain</a></strong></p>
<p><strong>READ MORE:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/prince-died-of-drug-overdose-2016-6" >Prince's official cause of death has been released</a></strong></p>
<h3>This is fentanyl. It looks like any other prescription painkiller — but it isn't.</h3>
<img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/57596769910584155c8c7ad9-400-300/this-is-fentanyl-it-looks-like-any-other-prescription-painkiller--but-it-isnt.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><h3>Fentanyl, which is also available in a patch or liquid, is 80 to 100 times more powerful than morphine and about 40 to 50 times more potent than 100% pure heroin.</h3>
<img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/55bf8d3b2acae72d5f8bbe59-400-300/fentanyl-which-is-also-available-in-a-patch-or-liquid-is-80-to-100-times-more-powerful-than-morphine-and-about-40-to-50-times-more-potent-than-100-pure-heroin.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p><em>Source: <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ershdb/EmergencyResponseCard_29750022.html">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention</a></em></p></p>
<br/><br/><h3>Still, the drug belongs to a larger class of drugs, known as opioid painkillers, which includes prescription drugs like OxyContin and Vicodin. These drugs work by capitalizing on our body's natural pain-relief system, and can result in a surging sense of euphoria.</h3>
<img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/56e0b5a491058428008b5591-400-300/still-the-drug-belongs-to-a-larger-class-of-drugs-known-as-opioid-painkillers-that-includes-prescription-drugs-like-oxycontin-and-vicodin-these-drugs-work-by-capitalizing-on-our-bodys-natural-pain-relief-system-and-can-result-in-a-surging-sense-of-euphoria.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-carfentanil-the-elephant-sedative#/#since-1999-overdose-deaths-involving-opioid-painkillers-have-quadrupled-in-2014-alone-more-than-14000-people-died-from-overdoses-involving-the-drugs-4">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> http://www.businessinsider.com/sinaloa-cartel-launder-money-clothes-imports-colombia-2016-8How the Sinaloa cartel reportedly laundered drug money with clothing and footwearhttp://www.businessinsider.com/sinaloa-cartel-launder-money-clothes-imports-colombia-2016-8
Tue, 02 Aug 2016 17:35:00 -0400Christopher Woody
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/56e9b89d52bcd0320c8b6c4e-1021/15330362982_c95790adc5_k.jpg" alt="confiscated drug money" data-mce-source="US Customs and Border Protection" data-mce-caption="A 48-year-old Mexican man was arrested for attempting to smuggle $189,300 in unreported U.S. currency into Mexico through the Port of Nogales." data-link="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cbpphotos/15330362982/in/photolist-pmG7P9-j4tDCn-pDRhzE-ebAonc-j4tDYT-j4seRD-j4tEaV-pDPoF8-oZsegT-pU5PjS-pDRy6Q-oZptvS-pDNscE-pDRopW-pWbNxM-9fjtsP-CjTpqt-w81myP-wmKc4h-z4QnWn-w5GaGs-w7n6WU-rMHVEi-cBRGgu-pjFDyU" /></p><p></p>
<p>Mexico's Sinaloa cartel is one of, and perhaps the, major player in the US drug trade, which is believed to bring in billions of dollars annually.</p>
<p>But the cartel needs to disguise the illicit origins of those profits, and a report from Colombian news outlet <a href="http://www.portafolio.co/economia/cartel-de-sinaloa-ingresaba-textiles-de-contrabando-a-colombia-499121" target="_blank">Portafolio</a>, first sighted by <a href="http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/sinaloa-cartel-laundered-money-in-colombia-using-textiles-report" target="_blank">Insight Crime</a>, indicates that the criminal organization relied on smugglers who looked to Colombia, using the more mundane apparel industry to launder that ill-gotten cash.</p>
<p>The scheme relied heavily on free-trade agreements between Colombia and other countries in the region. For those countries, tariffs are waived on imports of clothing and footwear.</p>
<p>A group working for the Sinaloa cartel, that Portafolio <a href="http://www.portafolio.co/economia/cartel-de-sinaloa-ingresaba-textiles-de-contrabando-a-colombia-499121" target="_blank">called</a> one of the largest bands of contraband smugglers in the world, "began to realize that if they brought merchandise from one of those countries to which the [tariff waiver] applied [they] could circumvent the" import tariff, Portafolio <a href="http://www.portafolio.co/economia/cartel-de-sinaloa-ingresaba-textiles-de-contrabando-a-colombia-499121" target="_blank">reported</a>.</p>
<p>"One of the methods they employed was the triangulation of merchandise," the report <a href="http://www.portafolio.co/economia/cartel-de-sinaloa-ingresaba-textiles-de-contrabando-a-colombia-499121" target="_blank">continued</a>. "They imported products made in countries with which there was not [free-trade agreement] and they made them pass as if they were made in" a country that did have an agreement.</p>
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/57a0c65388e4a7d9068bc5e5-2400/rtx103mv.jpg" alt="Colombia smuggling contraband port inspection" data-mce-source="REUTERS/John Vizcaino" data-mce-caption="A customs police officer, right, and a staff member of the Colombian fiscal authority (DIAN) check boxes of cargo from a ship docked at a port in Pueblo Nuevo, August 15, 2012." /></p>
<p>This method allowed the group, acting on behalf of the Sinaloa cartel, to buy legitimate goods with dirty cash and then resell those goods to turn what appeared to be a legal profit &mdash; all while avoiding Colombia's tariffs on imports.</p>
<p>Colombian authorities quickly noticed an increase of imports from countries with free-trade agreements, particularly of clothing and footwear, as the volumes of those goods from those countries were previously very low, <a href="http://www.portafolio.co/economia/cartel-de-sinaloa-ingresaba-textiles-de-contrabando-a-colombia-499121" target="_blank">according</a> to Portafolio.</p>
<h2>Trade-based money laundering</h2>
<p>The US played an important role in this laundering effort, as the free-trade agreement between the US and Colombia allows exporters to independently certify the country of origin for their goods.</p>
<p>The smugglers relied on Los Angeles for one iteration of this scheme, creating "various companies in order to sell products from Asia as if they were from the United States," Portafolio <a href="http://www.portafolio.co/economia/cartel-de-sinaloa-ingresaba-textiles-de-contrabando-a-colombia-499121" target="_blank">noted</a>.</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/5526a36e69bedd61104a0b96-2400/venezuela-colombia-border-smuggling.jpg" alt="Venezuela Colombia border smuggling" data-mce-source="AP" data-mce-caption="Venezuela has increased anti-smuggling activity on its borders in recent months, including at this crossing in San Antonio, March 18, 2015" /></p>
<p>These products could then be shipped to Colombia, avoiding tariff restrictions, and resold for a tidy profit of clean cash.</p>
<p>TBML schemes have popped up in <a href="http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/report-highlights-importance-of-trade-based-money-laundering-2" target="_blank">numerous</a> Latin American countries, and Los Angeles has been&nbsp;linked to trade-based money laundering elsewhere.</p>
<p>According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the Sinaloa cartel has been linked to efforts to purchase bulk amounts of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/where-drug-money-goes-2016-3" target="_blank">clothing from Asia in Los Angeles using money from drug sales in the US</a>, and then to move that clothing to Mexico, where it can be resold in the legal marketplace.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The Sinaloa Cartel used US drug proceeds to purchase clothes imported from China that were stored in the targeted fashion businesses&rsquo; warehouses&rdquo; in Los Angeles, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/where-drug-money-goes-2016-3" target="_blank">the DEA reported</a> in its 2015 National Drug Threat Assessment.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The clothes were then shipped across the border into Mexico for resale and the profits placed into the Mexican financial system as legitimate proceeds,&rdquo; the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/where-drug-money-goes-2016-3" target="_blank">DEA added</a>.</p>
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/56e9a346910584155c8b6ad1-1102/screen shot 2016-03-16 at 1.53.06 pm.png" alt="US drug trafficking money laundering" data-mce-source="2015 DEA NDTA" data-mce-caption="Trade-based money laundering involves purchasing goods in bulk amounts with profits from drug sales, and then reselling those goods." data-link="http://www.dea.gov/divisions/hq/2015/hq110415.shtml" /></p>
<p>In a fall 2014 investigation mounted by federal and state authorities in Los Angeles, about <a href="https://www.apparelnews.net/news/2015/apr/30/investigators-raise-tally-140-million-fashion-dist/" target="_blank">$140 million</a> in cash and property was seized.</p>
<p>The investigation <a href="https://www.apparelnews.net/news/2015/apr/30/investigators-raise-tally-140-million-fashion-dist/" target="_blank">revealed</a> cash was being dropped off at clothing and textile companies in the city, which then used the cash to buy goods that were shipped to Mexico to be resold for pesos that eventually made their way to the Sinaloa and Knights Templar cartels.</p>
<p><span>&ldquo;The epicenter for a lot of the money laundering for the Mexican cartels is Los Angeles. And they use the fashion district to launder money," Mike Vigil, a former chief of international operations for the DEA, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/where-drug-money-goes-2016-3" target="_blank">told Business Insider</a>, adding that cartels also run similar operations using commodities like gold or diamonds.</span></p>
<p><span><span>"They're sold over there and all of a sudden, voil&agrave;, you go from US dollars to Mexican pesos,&rdquo; <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/where-drug-money-goes-2016-3" target="_blank">Vigil said</a>.</span></span></p>
<h2><span><span>Trillions of opportunities</span></span></h2>
<p>Trade-based money laundering can take many forms and in most cases misrepresents the price, quality, or quantity of goods as they move over borders and through suppliers, according to a Congressional Research <a href="http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44541.pdf" target="_blank">report</a> released this year.</p>
<p>Some of the most common <a href="http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44541.pdf" target="_blank">methods</a> are over- and under-invoicing for goods and services, multiple invoicing, over- and under-shipment, and false descriptions of goods, all of which give legal cover to the movement of cash.</p>
<p><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/56e9a59591058424008b6c98-2400/money smuggling laundering seizure bust.jpg" alt="Money smuggling laundering seizure bust" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Tomas Bravo" data-mce-caption="Soldiers escort four detainees for presentation to the media at a military zone on the outskirts of Monterrey, northern Mexico, September 22, 2009. The army seized $3.7 million and 23 million pesos ($1.7 million) in drug cash." /></p>
<p>Limitations of customs agencies, the mixing of legal and illicit funds, and the complexities of the international trade and financial systems all allow criminals to obscure their financial operations.</p>
<p>As global trade has grown, reaching $16.4 trillion in 2015, the "enormous volume of trade flows, which obscures individual transactions and provides abundant opportunity for criminal organizations to transfer value across borders," has made the international trade system a ripe target for exploitation by criminal actors, <a href="http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44541.pdf" target="_blank">according</a> to the Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental body targeting money laundering and illicit financing.</p>
<p>A February 2010 <a href="http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44541.pdf" target="_blank">advisory</a> issued by the US Treasury Department said that over 17,000 reports detailed potential TBML activity between January 2004 and May 2009 involving, in aggregate, over $276 billion.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/where-drug-money-goes-2016-3" >Inside narco economics: 'The real drugs millionaires are right here in the United States'</a></strong></p>
<p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pablo-escobar-hippo-problems-in-colombia-2016-7" >Pablo Escobar may be long gone, but his hippos are still causing problems for Colombia</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sinaloa-cartel-launder-money-clothes-imports-colombia-2016-8#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cocaine-hidden-in-frozen-strawberries-colombia-police-drugs-2016-7">Police in Colombia seized half a tonne of cocaine hidden in frozen strawberries</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-k2-or-spiceProduction of a deadly drug called 'K2' is soaring and the DEA can't keep uphttp://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-k2-or-spice
Sat, 16 Jul 2016 11:00:00 -0400Erin Brodwin
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/55675e686da811d6459cfd90-1200-924/spice-powder-being-made-vice.jpg" alt="spice powder being made VICE" border="0" /></p><p></p>
<p>Spice, otherwise known as K2, Moon Rocks, or Skunk, is a <a href="http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/k2spice-synthetic-marijuana">lab-produced, mind-altering drug</a> that's been soaring in popularity in recent years.</p>
<p>Giant <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/29/us/arrest-opens-window-on-chinas-role-in-designer-drug-market.html">underground laboratories</a>, many of which are in China, are churning out <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLD3AKoyV5Q">thousands of pounds</a> of the stuff. During the first four months of last year, the National Poison Data System reported a <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6422a5.htm">330% increase</a> in spice-related calls to US poison centers.</p>
<p>A new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/wr/mm6527a2.htm?s_cid=mm6527a2_w">report</a> released Thursday echoes those findings and adds that K2-related poisonings have risen in all US census regions.</p>
<p>Still, the problem appears clustered in several US cities, including New York.</p>
<p>Even more disturbingly, the drug is often marketed in those areas as a safer "alternative" to traditional marijuana, which experts say is far from the truth.</p>
<p>"The whole guise here is to make people think it's similar to marijuana," James Hunt, the DEA special agent in charge of New York's division, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/14/nyregion/k2-overdoses-brooklyn-police-raids.html">told The New York Times</a> just days after emergency workers in Brooklyn <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/13/nyregion/k2-synthetic-marijuana-overdose-in-brooklyn.html">transported 33 people suspected of overdosing on spice</a> to the hospital.</p>
<p>Here's everything you need to know about spice, or K2.</p>
<h2>What is spice?</h2>
<p>Spice looks fairly harmless &mdash; like herbs in a shiny package &mdash; but it isn't.</p>
<p>The number of reported emergency-room visits related to synthetic marijuana spiked in 2010, from 13 in 2009 to 567 in the first half of 2010, according to a report from the American Association of Poison Control Centers <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-12-22/news/ct-x-s-faux-marijuana-1222-20101222_1_synthetic-marijuana-drug-court-participants-fake-pot">published in The Chicago Tribune</a>.</p>
<p>Many experts say "synthetic marijuana" is a misnomer for these drugs since their effects are vastly different than those induced by pot. Synthetic marijuana can be up to 100 times more potent than traditional marijuana.</p>
<p><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5786b04488e4a70f018b7e8d-1038/usmc-100201-m-3762c-001.jpg" alt="spice brand herbal incense k2 synthetic marijuana" data-mce-source="Wikimedia Commons" data-link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_cannabis#/media/File:USMC-100201-M-3762C-001.jpg" />Still, there is at least one similarity between synthetic marijuana and traditional pot. Both of the drug's main psychoactive ingredients bind to special receptors in the brain called CB1 receptors, a <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4582439/">2014 study published in the journal Current Addiction Reports</a> details. Because spice is so much stronger than pot, however, it is much more likely to cause serious symptoms, including seizures and psychosis.</p>
<p>The first form of the psychoactive ingredient used in spice was called <a href="http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drug_chem_info/spice/spice_jwh018.pdf">JWH-018</a>, named after the scientist John W. Huffman, who invented it in 2008. But the drugmakers change the ingredients in the drugs so fast &mdash; and produce them in such massive quantities &mdash; that drug enforcement can't keep up.</p>
<p>DEA spokesman <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/deadly-drug-popular-with-hs-students-2015-8" target="_blank">Matthew Barden told Business Insider last year</a> that chemists who produce the chemicals in the drugs have been known to constantly tweak their formula to undermine US drug laws.</p>
<h2>How is K2 made?</h2>
<p>The drugs are produced in powdered form in underground laboratories, and many are in China, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLD3AKoyV5Q">VICE reported in a recent series produced for HBO</a>. Then, the drugs are packed up in large bags and shipped to the US, often in huge containers labeled "fertilizer" or "industrial solvent."</p>
<p><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/556736fa6da811dd1f9cfd92-1852/screen shot 2015-05-28 at 11.35.49 am.png" alt="k2 spice factory" data-mce-source="VICE/YouTube" data-link="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLD3AKoyV5Q" />Next, the powdered versions of the drug are changed into liquids by dissolving in acetone or alcohol, VICE reported. The liquid forms are used to douse dry plant material, which is then packaged in shiny metallic baggies for sale.</p>
<p>Packages of spice are often disguised with labels like "plant food" or "potpourri." The back of the packages often include a coy warning: "Not intended for human consumption."</p>
<p>Here's an example of a spice package, labeled "FrogE Magic Plant Food":</p>
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/55672f466da8114c619cfd92-1120/raquel baranow spice froge magic plant food 1.jpeg" alt="spice k2 synthetic marijuana FrogE magic plant food" data-mce-source="Flickr/Raquel Baranow" /></p>
<h2>How popular is spice and how dangerous is it?</h2>
<p>Between 2010 and 2015, more than 450 cases of synthetic cannabinoid intoxication were reported among patients treated by US medical toxicologists, according to the CDC. Of those cases, 277 (61%) were caused by spice alone, meaning no other drugs were involved. Three people died.</p>
<p>The problem appears to be prevalent in several US cities including New York, where <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/new-york-city-banned-k2-marijuana-2015-10">Mayor Bill de Blasio banned the drug</a> last year.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, the New York City Police Department reported a huge decrease in K2-related incidents after a series of legal actions tried to reduce the availability of spice, but recent reports could indicate that the problem is far from solved.</p>
<p>"It's back," Hunt <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/14/nyregion/k2-overdoses-brooklyn-police-raids.html">told The Times</a> on Wednesday.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-k2-or-spice#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mars-travel-humans-space-robots-2016-12">A space engineer explains why humans will never go past Mars</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-k2-or-spiceEverything you need to know about the deadly new street drug 'K2' — its side effects aren't even the worst parthttp://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-k2-or-spice
Thu, 14 Jul 2016 13:21:00 -0400Erin Brodwin
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/55675e686da811d6459cfd90-1200-924/spice-powder-being-made-vice.jpg" alt="spice powder being made VICE" border="0" /></p><p></p>
<p>Spice, otherwise known as K2, Moon Rocks, or Skunk, is a <a href="http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/k2spice-synthetic-marijuana">lab-produced, mind-altering drug</a> that's been soaring in popularity in recent years.</p>
<p>Giant <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/29/us/arrest-opens-window-on-chinas-role-in-designer-drug-market.html">underground laboratories</a>, many of which are in China, are churning out <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLD3AKoyV5Q">thousands of pounds</a> of the stuff. During the first four months of last year, the National Poison Data System reported a <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6422a5.htm">330% increase</a> in spice-related calls to US poison centers.</p>
<p>A new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/wr/mm6527a2.htm?s_cid=mm6527a2_w">report</a> released Thursday echoes those findings and adds that K2-related poisonings have risen in all US census regions.</p>
<p>Still, the problem appears clustered in several US cities, including New York.</p>
<p>Even more disturbingly, the drug is often marketed in those areas as a safer "alternative" to traditional marijuana, which experts say is far from the truth.</p>
<p>"The whole guise here is to make people think it's similar to marijuana," James Hunt, the DEA special agent in charge of New York's division, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/14/nyregion/k2-overdoses-brooklyn-police-raids.html">told The New York Times</a> just days after emergency workers in Brooklyn <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/13/nyregion/k2-synthetic-marijuana-overdose-in-brooklyn.html">transported 33 people suspected of overdosing on spice</a> to the hospital.</p>
<p>Here's everything you need to know about spice, or K2.</p>
<h2>What is spice?</h2>
<p>Spice looks fairly harmless &mdash; like herbs in a shiny package &mdash; but it isn't.</p>
<p>The number of reported emergency-room visits related to synthetic marijuana spiked in 2010, from 13 in 2009 to 567 in the first half of 2010, according to a report from the American Association of Poison Control Centers <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-12-22/news/ct-x-s-faux-marijuana-1222-20101222_1_synthetic-marijuana-drug-court-participants-fake-pot">published in The Chicago Tribune</a>.</p>
<p>Many experts say "synthetic marijuana" is a misnomer for these drugs since their effects are vastly different than those induced by pot. Synthetic marijuana can be up to 100 times more potent than traditional marijuana.</p>
<p><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5786b04488e4a70f018b7e8d-1038/usmc-100201-m-3762c-001.jpg" alt="spice brand herbal incense k2 synthetic marijuana" data-mce-source="Wikimedia Commons" data-link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_cannabis#/media/File:USMC-100201-M-3762C-001.jpg" />Still, there is at least one similarity between synthetic marijuana and traditional pot. Both of the drug's main psychoactive ingredients bind to special receptors in the brain called CB1 receptors, a <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4582439/">2014 study published in the journal Current Addiction Reports</a> details. Because spice is so much stronger than pot, however, it is much more likely to cause serious symptoms, including seizures and psychosis.</p>
<p>The first form of the psychoactive ingredient used in spice was called <a href="http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drug_chem_info/spice/spice_jwh018.pdf">JWH-018</a>, named after the scientist John W. Huffman, who invented it in 2008. But the drugmakers change the ingredients in the drugs so fast &mdash; and produce them in such massive quantities &mdash; that drug enforcement can't keep up.</p>
<p>DEA spokesman <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/deadly-drug-popular-with-hs-students-2015-8" target="_blank">Matthew Barden told Business Insider last year</a> that chemists who produce the chemicals in the drugs have been known to constantly tweak their formula to undermine US drug laws.</p>
<h2>How is K2 made?</h2>
<p>The drugs are produced in powdered form in underground laboratories, and many are in China, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLD3AKoyV5Q">VICE reported in a recent series produced for HBO</a>. Then, the drugs are packed up in large bags and shipped to the US, often in huge containers labeled "fertilizer" or "industrial solvent."</p>
<p><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/556736fa6da811dd1f9cfd92-1852/screen shot 2015-05-28 at 11.35.49 am.png" alt="k2 spice factory" data-mce-source="VICE/YouTube" data-link="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLD3AKoyV5Q" />Next, the powdered versions of the drug are changed into liquids by dissolving in acetone or alcohol, VICE reported. The liquid forms are used to douse dry plant material, which is then packaged in shiny metallic baggies for sale.</p>
<p>Packages of spice are often disguised with labels like "plant food" or "potpourri." The back of the packages often include a coy warning: "Not intended for human consumption."</p>
<p>Here's an example of a spice package, labeled "FrogE Magic Plant Food":</p>
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/55672f466da8114c619cfd92-1120/raquel baranow spice froge magic plant food 1.jpeg" alt="spice k2 synthetic marijuana FrogE magic plant food" data-mce-source="Flickr/Raquel Baranow" /></p>
<h2>How popular is spice and how dangerous is it?</h2>
<p>Between 2010 and 2015, more than 450 cases of synthetic cannabinoid intoxication were reported among patients treated by US medical toxicologists, according to the CDC. Of those cases, 277 (61%) were caused by spice alone, meaning no other drugs were involved. Three people died.</p>
<p>The problem appears to be prevalent in several US cities including New York, where <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/new-york-city-banned-k2-marijuana-2015-10">Mayor Bill de Blasio banned the drug</a> last year.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, the New York City Police Department reported a huge decrease in K2-related incidents after a series of legal actions tried to reduce the availability of spice, but recent reports could indicate that the problem is far from solved.</p>
<p>"It's back," Hunt <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/14/nyregion/k2-overdoses-brooklyn-police-raids.html">told The Times</a> on Wednesday.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-k2-or-spice#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-you-shouldnt-pick-your-nose-2016-11">Forget the gross factor: There are serious health reasons for why you shouldn't pick your nose</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/cocaine-worth-75-million-inside-diamante-encrusted-horse-head-auckland-new-zealand-2016-7Cocaine worth £7.5 million found hidden inside a diamante-encrusted horse headhttp://www.businessinsider.com/cocaine-worth-75-million-inside-diamante-encrusted-horse-head-auckland-new-zealand-2016-7
Mon, 04 Jul 2016 07:40:00 -0400Claudia Romeo
<p>Police in Auckland, New Zealand, seized £7.5 million worth of cocaine found&nbsp;<span>inside a diamante-encrusted horse head</span>. The drugs were packaged into 35 one-kilogram blocks which originated from Mexico.</p>
<p><em>Produced by <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/author/claudia-romeo">Claudia Romeo</a></em></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cocaine-worth-75-million-inside-diamante-encrusted-horse-head-auckland-new-zealand-2016-7#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/armed-civilians-that-patrol-the-border-2016-6See the faces of the armed civilians who patrol the US border with Mexicohttp://www.businessinsider.com/armed-civilians-that-patrol-the-border-2016-6
Tue, 28 Jun 2016 11:06:24 -0400David Choi
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/57727d6c88e4a78c148b457c-2400/_kjp0500-1.jpg" alt="Arizona Border Recon 2" data-mce-source="Kremer Johnson Photography" data-link="http://kremerjohnson.com/" /></p><p></p>
<p>The&nbsp;US border with&nbsp;Mexico spans <a href="https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/578/~/border-in-miles">1,989 miles</a>.&nbsp;And while US Customs and Border Protection agents are tasked with patrolling America's borders, a volunteer group of armed civilians named&nbsp;<a href="https://www.arizonaborderrecon.org/">Arizona Border Recon</a>&nbsp;intercepts people illegally crossing into the US and hands them over to authorities.</p>
<p>Below are portraits taken by&nbsp;<a href="http://kremerjohnson.com/"><span>Cory Johnson and Neil Kremer</span></a><span>&nbsp;of Arizona Border Recon members.</span></p>
<p><em>All photos republished with permission.</em></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-border-fence-climbers-how-should-the-border-patrol-respond-2016-4" >Border fence climbers: How should the Border Patrol respond?</a></strong></p>
<img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/57727d3788e4a7d9068b4653-400-300/.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/57727f8e4321f16c018b46f5-400-300/.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/57727d9e88e4a7d9068b465a-400-300/.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/armed-civilians-that-patrol-the-border-2016-6#/#-4">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-fentanyl-the-drug-that-killed-princeThe legal drug that killed Prince was 50 times stronger than heroin — here’s everything you need to know about ithttp://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-fentanyl-the-drug-that-killed-prince
Sat, 11 Jun 2016 11:00:00 -0400Erin Brodwin
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/575996e752bcd020008c8012-1440/prince_cover.jpg" alt="prince broadway" data-mce-source="Associated Press" data-mce-caption="Boradway tributes roll in after Prince's death" /></p><p>Fentanyl, the drug that killed Prince, is an opioid painkiller that's 50 times stronger than pure heroin.</p>
<p>The drug is legal and can be prescribed by a doctor for a variety of conditions &mdash; most often to treat severe pain.</p>
<p>But it's showing up on the street as well.</p>
<p>Authorities are seizing more and more of the drug in the US and <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/investigations/a-killer-high-how-canada-got-addicted-tofentanyl/article29570025/">Canada</a>. The total number of reported fentanyl drug seizures in the US in 2014 jumped to 4,585, from 618 in 2012, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/26/us/heroin-fentanyl.html">according to The New York Times</a>.</p>
<p>And it's just one part of the far bigger issue of prescription painkiller use and abuse: Despite being home to just 5% of the world's population, America consumes <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/27/americans-consume-almost-all-of-the-global-opioid-supply.html">80% of its opioids</a>.</p>
<p>Read on to find out where the deadly drug is being made, what it looks like, and what it does:</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mental-physical-effects-of-opioids-2016-5" >What a legal drug that kills more Americans than heroin does to your body and brain</a></strong></p>
<p><strong>READ MORE:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/prince-died-of-drug-overdose-2016-6" >Prince's official cause of death has been released</a></strong></p>
<h3>This is fentanyl. It looks like any other prescription painkiller — but it isn't.</h3>
<img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/57596769910584155c8c7ad9-400-300/this-is-fentanyl-it-looks-like-any-other-prescription-painkiller--but-it-isnt.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><h3>Fentanyl, which is also available in a patch or liquid, is 80 to 100 times more powerful than morphine and about 40 to 50 times more potent than 100% pure heroin.</h3>
<img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/55bf8d3b2acae72d5f8bbe59-400-300/fentanyl-which-is-also-available-in-a-patch-or-liquid-is-80-to-100-times-more-powerful-than-morphine-and-about-40-to-50-times-more-potent-than-100-pure-heroin.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p><em>Source: <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ershdb/EmergencyResponseCard_29750022.html">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention</a></em></p></p>
<br/><br/><h3>Still, the drug belongs to a larger class of drugs, known as opioid painkillers, which includes prescription drugs like OxyContin and Vicodin. These drugs work by capitalizing on our body's natural pain-relief system, and can result in a surging sense of euphoria.</h3>
<img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/56e0b5a491058428008b5591-400-300/still-the-drug-belongs-to-a-larger-class-of-drugs-known-as-opioid-painkillers-that-includes-prescription-drugs-like-oxycontin-and-vicodin-these-drugs-work-by-capitalizing-on-our-bodys-natural-pain-relief-system-and-can-result-in-a-surging-sense-of-euphoria.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-fentanyl-the-drug-that-killed-prince#/#since-1999-overdose-deaths-involving-opioid-painkillers-have-quadrupled-in-2014-alone-more-than-14000-people-died-from-overdoses-involving-the-drugs-4">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-fentanyl-the-drug-that-killed-princeThe legal drug that killed Prince was 50 times stronger than heroin — here’s everything you need to know about ithttp://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-fentanyl-the-drug-that-killed-prince
Thu, 09 Jun 2016 12:19:00 -0400Erin Brodwin
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/575996e752bcd020008c8012-1440/prince_cover.jpg" alt="prince broadway" data-mce-source="Associated Press" data-mce-caption="Boradway tributes roll in after Prince's death" /></p><p>Fentanyl, the drug that killed Prince, is an opioid painkiller that's 50 times stronger than pure heroin.</p>
<p>The drug is legal and can be prescribed by a doctor for a variety of conditions &mdash; most often to treat severe pain.</p>
<p>But it's showing up on the street as well.</p>
<p>Authorities are seizing more and more of the drug in the US and <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/investigations/a-killer-high-how-canada-got-addicted-tofentanyl/article29570025/">Canada</a>. The total number of reported fentanyl drug seizures in the US in 2014 jumped to 4,585, from 618 in 2012, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/26/us/heroin-fentanyl.html">according to The New York Times</a>.</p>
<p>And it's just one part of the far bigger issue of prescription painkiller use and abuse: Despite being home to just 5% of the world's population, America consumes <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/27/americans-consume-almost-all-of-the-global-opioid-supply.html">80% of its opioids</a>.</p>
<p>Read on to find out where the deadly drug is being made, what it looks like, and what it does:</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mental-physical-effects-of-opioids-2016-5" >What a legal drug that kills more Americans than heroin does to your body and brain</a></strong></p>
<p><strong>READ MORE:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/prince-died-of-drug-overdose-2016-6" >Prince's official cause of death has been released</a></strong></p>
<h3>This is fentanyl. It looks like any other prescription painkiller — but it isn't.</h3>
<img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/57596769910584155c8c7ad9-400-300/this-is-fentanyl-it-looks-like-any-other-prescription-painkiller--but-it-isnt.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><h3>Fentanyl, which is also available in a patch or liquid, is 80 to 100 times more powerful than morphine and about 40 to 50 times more potent than 100% pure heroin.</h3>
<img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/55bf8d3b2acae72d5f8bbe59-400-300/fentanyl-which-is-also-available-in-a-patch-or-liquid-is-80-to-100-times-more-powerful-than-morphine-and-about-40-to-50-times-more-potent-than-100-pure-heroin.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p><em>Source: <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ershdb/EmergencyResponseCard_29750022.html">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention</a></em></p></p>
<br/><br/><h3>Still, the drug belongs to a larger class of drugs, known as opioid painkillers, which includes prescription drugs like OxyContin and Vicodin. These drugs work by capitalizing on our body's natural pain-relief system, and can result in a surging sense of euphoria.</h3>
<img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/56e0b5a491058428008b5591-400-300/still-the-drug-belongs-to-a-larger-class-of-drugs-known-as-opioid-painkillers-that-includes-prescription-drugs-like-oxycontin-and-vicodin-these-drugs-work-by-capitalizing-on-our-bodys-natural-pain-relief-system-and-can-result-in-a-surging-sense-of-euphoria.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-fentanyl-the-drug-that-killed-prince#/#since-1999-overdose-deaths-involving-opioid-painkillers-have-quadrupled-in-2014-alone-more-than-14000-people-died-from-overdoses-involving-the-drugs-4">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> http://www.businessinsider.com/feds-scrutinize-ca-border-towns-police-2016-5A town on California's border with Mexico has a terrible reputationhttp://www.businessinsider.com/feds-scrutinize-ca-border-towns-police-2016-5
Fri, 20 May 2016 13:02:50 -0400Elliot Spagat
<div>
<p><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/56f405a352bcd023008b8906-5472-3648/calexico mexico drug smuggling tunnel.jpg" alt="Calexico Mexico drug smuggling tunnel" data-mce-source="REUTERS/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Handout" data-mce-caption="A US Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Response Team agent processing evidence during an investigation of a cross-border tunnel linking Calexico, US and Mexicali, Mexico, in Calexico, California, March 23, 2016." /></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">SAN DIEGO (AP) &mdash; The U.S. Justice Department issued a scathing review Wednesday of a small <span>town's</span>&nbsp;<span>police&nbsp;</span>practices in a big drug and immigrant smuggling corridor on California's <span>border</span> with Mexico, finding a lack of basic controls and oversight of criminal investigations, unstable leadership and other red flags.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">The 133-page report was released less than a week after the ousted <span>police</span> chief of Calexico filed a federal whistleblower lawsuit describing missing guns, money and other evidence, and allegations that city workers engaged in drug trafficking, overtime abuse and theft.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">The Justice Department's Community Oriented <span>Policing</span> Services unit limited its review to broad systemic flaws and steered clear of specific allegations of wrongdoing and misconduct, but its unusually blunt language portrays a <span>police</span> department that is failing on many fronts. It recommends a sweeping overhaul.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">"It shows a pretty significant level of deficiencies in the core operations of a department," Ronald Davis, director of the unit, said in an interview. "The consequences of not implementing the 169 recommendations would be that you would sustain a <span>dysfunctional</span> department."</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Reggie Gomez, Calexico's interim <span>police</span> chief, said at a news conference that the city has already taken some measures to rebuild.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">"I have faith that the officials elected and appointed by the city of Calexico will do what's right for the city of Calexico and its citizens," Gomez said.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Mayor Joong S. Kim said in an email that the report was "not objective" and that it was "more of an opinion report without many facts."</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Kim said he has asked for an independent or state-controller audit of the city, which he said has suffered because of years of nepotism and poor leadership on the City Council.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/56f403a652bcd01a008b8775-876-469/screen shot 2016-03-24 at 11.10.36 am.png" alt="Calexico California" data-mce-source="Google Maps" data-mce-caption="Calexico, California, is a small city of about 40,000 people some 120 miles east of San Diego." /></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Calexico, a city of 40,000 people 120 miles east of San Diego, is a big area of concern for federal agencies including the Drug Enforcement Administration and Customs and <span>Border</span> Protection, which routinely seizes heroin, methamphetamine and other drugs at two <span>border</span> crossings in the city. Easy freeway access to Los Angeles and Phoenix make it part of a coveted smuggling route, controlled by Mexico's Sinaloa cartel.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">The Calexico <span>Police</span> Department has been suspended from two task forces with federal or state officials that are designed to disrupt the flow of drugs &mdash; the Imperial Valley Drug Coalition and the Imperial County Narcotic Task Force. The Justice Department report says unstable leadership led to the removals.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">The FBI raided Calexico <span>police</span> headquarters and seized files in October 2014, less than a month after Michael Bostic, a former top official with the Los Angeles <span>Police</span> Department, was hired as <span>police</span> chief and began cleaning house. The FBI has not reported results of its investigation.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Bostic, who was ousted in November by new city leadership, said in a whistleblower lawsuit filed last week in San Diego that he told the FBI of drug use, drug trafficking, money theft and smuggling by city employees.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">The lawsuit says an audit performed by the Imperial County Sheriff's Office at Bostic's request revealed significant amounts of missing money, drugs, guns and personal property believed to be stolen by Calexico officers.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Gonzalo Gerardo, also a plaintiff in the lawsuit, reported suspicions of drug trafficking by Calexico <span>police&nbsp;</span>employees to the FBI in late 2013 when he was a lieutenant.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">The Justice Department unit launched its review at Bostic's request, as it has in Baltimore; Philadelphia; St. Louis County, Missouri; and several other jurisdictions that have asked for advice. It comes at a time of growing scrutiny of <span>police</span> practices nationwide.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/573f3fcb91058427008c4191-2951-2213/calexico mexico border tunnel.jpg" alt="Calexico Mexico border tunnel" data-mce-source="US Customs and Border Protection via AP" data-mce-caption="In this April 14, 2016, photo provided by US Customs and Border Protection, a Border Patrol agent shows the path of a tunnel that crosses the US-Mexico border near Calexico, California. The passage extended about 60 feet into Mexico and at least 80 feet into the US. It was not immediately clear if the tunnel was completed." /></span></p>
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<p><span style="color: #000000;">The federal review found a general lack of supervision and accountability, absence of community <span>policing</span>, poorly functioning internal affairs department, no analysis of crime data or sharing of information internally or externally, and lack of commonly used tools to detect problem officers.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">The Justice Department praises Bostic, saying the review could not have been completed without his support. It notes that he fired or suspended six officers and replaced the investigations unit.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;" align="center"><em><span style="color: #000000;">Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</span></em></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/feds-scrutinize-ca-border-towns-police-2016-5#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-tears-trump-cruzs-plans-apart-mexico-border-wall-immigration-2016-4">Obama slams Trump’s ‘half-baked’ plan to make Mexico pay for a US border wall</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/african-migrants-in-libya-face-kidnapping-torture-and-robbery-2016-5Thousands of African migrants face kidnapping, torture, and robbery on their deadly trek to Europehttp://www.businessinsider.com/african-migrants-in-libya-face-kidnapping-torture-and-robbery-2016-5
Mon, 09 May 2016 23:00:00 -0400Rebecca Murray
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/573116ee91058427008c1c73-3500-2272/rtx29gfw.jpg" alt="migrants libya" data-mce-source="Reuters/Ismail Zetouni" data-mce-caption="Migrants sit in a port, after being rescued at sea by Libyan coast guard, in Tripoli, Libya April 11, 2016." /></p><p>In an impoverished and violent neighborhood on the edge of Sebha in Libya's southern desert, 30-year-old Ibrahim from Burkina Faso is struggling to survive &mdash; and to move on.</p>
<p>He's stuck here, working at a laundry to make money, because he needs to save for the ride north over 400 miles of desert to Libya's coast, and a place on a boat to Italy.</p>
<p>It's dangerous for migrants like him, who pass through here on the way from sub-Saharan Africa to what they hope is a better life in Europe.</p>
<p>Warring local tribes, and gangs preying on migrants, are a daily threat.</p>
<p>"All the time guns are turned against us to rob us," said Ibrahim, who would only give a first name, while gesturing towards a group of men also from Burkina Faso, gathered warily outside a dilapidated storefront. "Four months ago I was actually shot here by one man."</p>
<p>Last year, friends who had made it to Europe called Ibrahim at home and told him about how they were doing better there. So he left behind his wife, newborn baby, and work selling goods on the street, and invested $300 for the brutal desert trek with smugglers to reach Sebha.</p>
<p>Ibrahim now needs the same amount to reach the coast at Tripoli, and up to $1,000 more to cross the Mediterranean Sea. That's a staggering sum for someone from Burkina Faso, where gross national&nbsp;<a href="http://data.worldbank.org/country/burkina-faso" target="_blank">income</a>&nbsp;per capita is $700.</p>
<p>But a place on a crowded, often rickety boat is no guarantee of getting anywhere alive. Ibrahim will have about a one in 30 chance of drowning in the Mediterranean.</p>
<p>28,000 people have arrived to Italy from Libyan shores this year, according to the International Organization for Migration or IOM, but almost 1,000 have died trying. It's the deadliest crossing to Europe for migrants and refugees.</p>
<p>According to IOM head Othman Belbeisi, there are significantly more than the 142,000 migrants and refugees currently documented as being inside Libya. But with no effective government since dictator Muammar Ghadafi was overthrown in 2011, Libya's security environment has deteriorated drastically, and so has the capability to count those passing through the country.</p>
<p><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/573117d5910584cc008c1e7a-3000-1948/rtx2ahyd.jpg" alt="libya migrants" data-mce-source="Reuters/Goran Tomasevic" data-mce-caption="A policeman guards illegal migrants in a coastal police base in Tripoli, Libya, March 13, 2015." />At Sebha's overcrowded and chaotic hospital, up to 50 sick or injured sub-Saharans come in daily from the treacherous desert, fleeing war, insurgency, drought, joblessness, and poverty. Around the hospital, fighters from the city of Misrata stand guard against frequent and often deadly skirmishes between local militia.</p>
<p>"There are people from car accidents in the desert, cases of dehydration, gunshot wounds, and kidnappings," said Mahdi Mohamed Mahdi, the harried administrator in charge of the migrants' medical files. "There is a lot of torture from kidnappings," he sighed.</p>
<p>Not everybody makes it to the hospital alive. One of Mahdi's tasks is to identify bodies that arrive without passports, or unidentified people who die in hospital care. Many of the dead are buried in both Muslim and Christian graves, but there is a backlog of unidentified corpses in the hospital morgue. "We've had some bodies here for over a year, since last Ramadan," he said.</p>
<p>Upstairs in a hospital bed, Saedo, a 25-year old from Gambia, recuperated with his right leg in bandages. He said he jumped from a moving car, driven by a man he suspected was trying to abduct him. "He picked me up off the street for work. I begged him to stop when we headed towards the desert," he said. "I had to escape."</p>
<p>In the past five years armed groups have proliferated, capitalizing on Libya's porous borders, political crisis and security vacuum, and transforming the smuggling of human beings into a lucrative, and booming, business.</p>
<p>Tribal fights over control of the smuggling routes, with their south Libyan hubs in Sebha and Kufra, affect the region at large, spilling over the desert borders. In the southwest, Algeria has significantly tightened border security to contain Libya's violence. Because of this, and French military patrols on the lookout for terrorists along the border with Niger, smuggling routes in recent years have largely shifted &mdash; crossing into Libya from Niger's northeast corner, due south of Sebha.</p>
<p>Libyan authorities, such as they are, can't do much to stop it.</p>
<p>Mouktar Dabo, one young policeman manning a desolate and officially closed Libyan border post with Algeria, said they ignore the few people who do cross here illegally. "We can't do anything because we have no money," he said. "And it's very difficult to put people in jail with no support."<img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5731184e52bcd0320c8c1d32-3500-2335/rts48z1.jpg" alt="african migrants libya" data-mce-source="Reuters/Hani Amara" data-mce-caption="An officer of a Libyan anti-illegal immigrants unit conducts an early morning raid on migrants at hideout in Tripoli, Libya, Oct. 13, 2015." /></p>
<p>There is one government agency in Libya dealing with all this &mdash; the Department to Combat Illegal Migration &mdash; but only half of its 21 detention centers are now operational due to a lack of funds. Government policy now is to bus the migrants it detains along the coast to the south, and drop them over the border in Niger.</p>
<p>"We have no outside help, and don't have the means because of the wide area we have to control," explained Bashir Darwish, the operating head of Misrata's military presence in Sebha. Darwish and his men view their role in the area as a mediators between the tribes, and supporters of the rule of law. "To the north we're having capacity problems because we are focused on defeating the Islamic State, and in the south because of political instability."</p>
<p>The militants who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State are another grave danger to the migrants, especially those who are Christians, like the Egyptians and Ethiopians whom the Libyan IS affiliate killed in grisly mass-beheading videos last year. Territory around Sirte is especially rife with IS jihadists.</p>
<p>However, humanitarian agencies fear more and more people will be forced to brave the dangers of a Libyan sea crossing, because of the European Union deal with Turkey earlier this year that blocked the passage of refugees and migrants into Greece.</p>
<p>Now EU states are preparing a similar agreement with Libya, to be approved by the incoming United Nations-backed Government of National Accord, or GNA, in Tripoli, for a more robust international presence policing smugglers and their business inside Libyan waters. The warships proposed as the muscle for this operation would not be Libyan &mdash; there is a barely functioning Libyan navy or coast guard &mdash; but from NATO.</p>
<p>"Rumors about a potential NATO involvement off Libya's coast [are] very worrying, [because of] what we have already experienced in the Aegean Sea a few months ago," said Stefano Argenziano, a humanitarian official from Doctors Without Borders, one of the few international medical charities currently treating refugees and migrants inside Libya, as well as on the Mediterranean.</p>
<p><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/573118ba91058427008c1c75-3500-2333/rtx1zn40.jpg" alt="african migrants libya" data-mce-source="Reuters/Hani Amara" data-mce-caption="Illegal migrants sit in a navy base, after a boat sank off the coast, in Tripoli, Dec. 21, 2015." /></p>
<p>"A policy based on deterrence will only shift the focus of routes elsewhere, which will be more dangerous and more traumatic than the old routes," warned Argenziano. "There is no alternative being offered to people who are putting their lives at stake crossing the desert and the sea. Deterrence will simply not work."</p>
<p>In Sebha, around the corner from the ramshackle laundry where Ibrahim from Burkina Faso works, a businessman, who people say is a middleman in the smuggling business, held court under his tent and described what he did.</p>
<p>"People arrive in very bad condition and I feel sorry for them," he scowled. "I feel responsible for them. After a series of communications they go off to relatives."</p>
<p>He, too, links the explosion in smuggling with the end of the oppressive regime that ruled Libya for 42 years.</p>
<p>"During Ghadafi's time there were many people afraid of this business," he said. "Now, the governments in Niger, in Chad, in Algeria &mdash; they are lying if they say they don't know how people get here. And at the Madama military base in Niger, the French know what is happening too."</p>
<p>"Only God can stop the smugglers," he laughed. "If you try and stop the business, they will kill you."</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/african-migrants-in-libya-face-kidnapping-torture-and-robbery-2016-5#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/preauricular-sinus-small-hole-above-ear-2016-11">Here's why some people have a tiny hole above their ears</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/johnny-depp-jokes-dog-apology-smuggling-2016-5Johnny Depp makes fun of his Australian dog smuggling apology while in Londonhttp://www.businessinsider.com/johnny-depp-jokes-dog-apology-smuggling-2016-5
Mon, 09 May 2016 10:38:30 -0400Claudia Romeo
<p>Johnny Depp has made light of the awkward <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/johnny-depp-dog-video-apology-amber-heard-australia-2016-4">dog apology video</a> recorded with his wife, Amber Heard, after their pets were brought illegally into Australia.</p>
<p><em>Produced by <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/author/claudia-romeo">Claudia Romeo</a></em></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/johnny-depp-jokes-dog-apology-smuggling-2016-5#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/police-smash-into-a-narco-tunnel-on-us-mexico-border-2016-4Mexican police smashed their way into a narco tunnel stretching across the US-Mexico borderhttp://www.businessinsider.com/police-smash-into-a-narco-tunnel-on-us-mexico-border-2016-4
Thu, 21 Apr 2016 08:26:00 -0400Christopher Woody
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5717ace99105841d008bddd5-1101-784/screen%20shot%202016-04-20%20at%2012.21.31%20pm.png" alt="Screen Shot 2016 04 20 at 12.21.31 PM" data-mce-source="Google Maps" data-mce-caption="The tunnel discovered in late March connected a restaurant in Mexico with a residential home in Calexico, California, stretching more than 400 yards."></p><p>In late March, US federal officials shut down a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-feds-bust-drug-smuggling-ring-using-tunnel-under-us-mexico-border-2016-3" target="_blank">smuggling tunnel stretching more than 400 yards</a> from Mexicali, Mexico, to Calexico, California, arresting four people and seizing more than 1,500 pounds of marijuana.</p>
<p>The tunnel's entrance on the Mexican side of the border was under the floor in El Sarape restaurant, and the opening on the US side was found under a tile floor in the front room of a three-bedroom home at <span>902 E. Third Street, located</span> about 300 yards from the border.</p>
<p>In the video below, <a href="http://zetatijuana.com/2016/03/23/narcos-compraron-casa-de-4-mdp-para-narcotunel-en-calexico/" target="_blank">posted</a> by Baja California-based magazine Zeta, Mexican federal police are seen smashing through the tile floor of the restaurant in Mexicali, pulling out the plug used to seal the entrance, and inspecting the tunnel.</p>
<p><div>
<iframe width="840" height="526" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/P6wSLmeDqXs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></p>
<p class="embed-spacer">While tunnels have frequently been used by Mexican traffickers to move large quantities of drugs into the US (including marijuana seized from a stash house, the total haul from this tunnel was <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/pr/owner-tunnel-house-calexico-arrested-today-arizona-0" target="_blank">nearly 3,00o pounds</a> of weed), the tunnel uncovered in Calexico was unique for several reasons.</p>
<p class="embed-spacer"><a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/pr/owner-tunnel-house-calexico-arrested-today-arizona-0" target="_blank">According</a> to US prosecutors, it was the first known instance of smugglers purchasing property on the US side of the border for the specific purpose of concealing a narco-tunnel entrance.</p>
<p class="embed-spacer"><span>"The search warrant affidavit and charging documents allege the traffickers scouted properties in the area and selected the Third Street parcel in a residential section of Calexico," the US attorney for the Southern District of California said in a <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/pr/owner-tunnel-house-calexico-arrested-today-arizona-0" target="_blank">statement</a>. </span></p>
<p class="embed-spacer"><span>"The property sale was finalized in April of 2015 for $240,000 by the drug traffickers."</span></p>
<p class="embed-spacer"><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5717ab8852bcd020008bdcbd-1347-868/mexico%20california%20tunnel%20entrance.png" alt="Mexico California tunnel entrance" data-mce-source="US Immigration and Customs Enforcement" data-mce-caption="The US entrance to a cross-border tunnel connecting Mexicali, Mexico, and Calexico, California, discovered in March 2016" data-link="https://www.dvidshub.net/video/455669/major-cross-border-tunnel-linking-calexico-and-mexicali#.VxdrtpMrKi4"></p>
<p class="embed-spacer"><span>This tunnel was also the second of three discovered over the last year in and around Calexico, an area that hadn't seen tunneling activity for nearly a decade.</span></p>
<p class="embed-spacer"><span>In April 2015, men were observed around the All-American Canal, appearing to bring drugs into the US. When authorities responded, they caught a man in a wet suit and scuba gear, as well as $700,000 worth of meth. Further investigation revealed a partially submerged tunnel stretching from Mexicali to the US border.</span></p>
<p class="embed-spacer"><span><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5717aebb52bcd0210c8bdcce-2250-3000/ap_764804058444.jpg" alt="Mexico US border tunnel entrance plug" data-mce-source="US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California via AP" data-mce-caption="This photo provided by the US attorney's office for the Southern District of California shows a plug that closed the entry point of of a tunnel at a restaurant in Mexicali, Mexico, that runs the length of four football fields to a newly built home in Calexico, California. An investigation netted more than a ton of marijuana and resulted in multiple arrests. It was the 12th completed secret passage that US authorities have discovered along California’s border with Mexico since 2006."></span></p>
<p class="embed-spacer"><span>In April this year, a US border agent came across another tunnel constructed between Mexicali and Calexico <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cross-border-tunnel-discovered-in-calexico-california-2016-4" target="_blank">when the ground collapsed</a> near the All-American Canal. </span></p>
<p class="embed-spacer"><span>That tunnel was found to span 142 feet from the US side of the border to <span>"<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cross-border-tunnel-discovered-in-calexico-california-2016-4" target="_blank">an </a></span><span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cross-border-tunnel-discovered-in-calexico-california-2016-4" target="_blank">area that is primarily open fields and farmland</a>" on the Mexican side, according to the Los Angeles Times.</span></span></p>
<p class="embed-spacer"><span><span>US authorities did specify what the tunnel's purpose was, and it was not clear whether it was completed, though <span>"</span><span>Anything or anyone could potentially cross into the U.S. via a tunnel," the US Customs and Border Protection agency said in a <a href="http://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/2016-04-15-000000/third-tunnel-one-year-discovered-calexico" target="_blank">statement</a>.</span></span></span></p>
<p class="embed-spacer"><span><span><span>In past, smugglers using tunnels have focused on the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/inside-mexican-drug-cartel-narco-tunnels-on-the-us-border-2016-4" target="_blank">Otay Mesa area between Tijuana and San Diego</a>, where the soil is more conducive to tunnel construction and where commercial and industrial activity makes it easier to hide building activity. </span></span></span></p>
<p class="embed-spacer"><span><span><span><span>"Calexico is generally considered a less desirable place to construct tunnels because soil composition is more difficult to penetrate, and because it is a largely a residential city, making tunnel exits and smuggling activity more difficult to conceal," the US attorney said in its <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/pr/owner-tunnel-house-calexico-arrested-today-arizona-0" target="_blank">statement</a>.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="embed-spacer"><span><span><span><span><span>The tunnel uncovered in late March was the 12th large-scale operational drug smuggling tunnel found along the California border since 2006, <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/pr/owner-tunnel-house-calexico-arrested-today-arizona-0" target="_blank">according</a> to the US attorney.</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="embed-spacer"><span><span><span><span><span>Over the last five years, federal authorities have detected more than <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/pr/owner-tunnel-house-calexico-arrested-today-arizona-0" target="_blank">75 cross-border smuggling tunnels</a>, most of which have been found California and Arizona.</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="embed-spacer"><span><span><span><span><span><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/5717ad7b910584cc008bde2b-959-541/screen%20shot%202016-04-20%20at%2012.24.06%20pm.png" alt="Screen Shot 2016 04 20 at 12.24.06 PM" data-mce-source="Zeta/YouTube" data-mce-caption="Mexican federal police breaking into the entrance of a cross-border smuggling tunnel in Mexicali, Mexico." data-link="http://zetatijuana.com/2016/03/23/narcos-compraron-casa-de-4-mdp-para-narcotunel-en-calexico/"></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="embed-spacer"><span><span><span><span><span>However, those may just be a fraction of the tunnels that riddle the US-Mexico frontier. </span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="embed-spacer"><span><span><span><span><span><span>"The Mexico-US border is like a block of cheese with holes in it, with tunnels across it," </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/el-chapo-guzman-strange-drug-smuggling-methods" target="_blank">author and journalist Ioan Grillo told Business Insider</a><span>.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="slide-title">The use of tunnels will likely continue in the future, "especially with the increased border patrols and the surveillance that is taking place along the border," Mike Vigil, <span>author of</span><span> "</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Deal-Undercover-Recounts-Standing-Treacherous/dp/1491735198/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1456952937&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=deal&amp;tag=bisafetynet-20">Deal</a><span>" and </span><span>the former head of international operations at the Drug Enforcement Administration,</span><span> <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/inside-mexican-drug-cartel-narco-tunnels-on-the-us-border-2016-4" target="_blank">told Business Insider</a>.</span></p>
<p class="slide-title"><span>For every tunnel found, as many as 10 could go undetected, Vigil <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/inside-mexican-drug-cartel-narco-tunnels-on-the-us-border-2016-4" target="_blank">said</a>.</span></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cross-border-tunnel-discovered-in-calexico-california-2016-4" >An agent discovered another tunnel on the US border after nearly falling into it</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/police-smash-into-a-narco-tunnel-on-us-mexico-border-2016-4#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/dea-agent-offered-3-million-dollars-mike-vigil-2016-4">EX-DEA AGENT: What I did when a drug dealer tried to bribe me with $3 million</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-lemon-trouser-smuggler-sent-packing-from-new-zealand-2016-3A woman from Hong Kong tried to smuggle six lemons into New Zealand by hiding them in her pantshttp://www.businessinsider.com/afp-lemon-trouser-smuggler-sent-packing-from-new-zealand-2016-3
Thu, 24 Mar 2016 10:45:00 -0400
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/56f3e0235124c987018b4567-800/afp-lemon-trouser-smuggler-sent-packing-from-new-zealand.jpg" alt="New Zealand has strict biosecurity laws" border="0" /></p><p>A woman who hid six lemons in her trousers in an effort to smuggle them into New Zealand has been sent packing back to Hong Kong, after falling foul of strict biosecurity laws.</p>
<p>Sniffer dogs checking incoming passengers at Auckland airport on Monday found the citrus contraband, which the traveller claimed she needed as part of a home-made liver remedy.</p>
<p>But customs agents were unimpressed, saying the fruit was forbidden by laws designed to protect domestic produce, and put the woman on the next available flight home.</p>
<p>"Her excuse was that the lemons were good for her liver and other illnesses," said Craig Hughes, a spokesman for the Ministry for Primary Industries.</p>
<p>"That may be true, but it doesn&rsquo;t justify endangering New Zealand&rsquo;s horticulture industry by illegally bringing in fruit that could harbour pests or diseases."</p>
<p>It is not the first time New Zealand's crack biosecurity teams have foiled a trouser-based attempt to bring illicit flora and fauna into the country.</p>
<p>In 2013, a Vietnamese man's bid to smuggle fish through Auckland airport floundered when officials noticed that water was dripping from the pockets of his cargo pants.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-lemon-trouser-smuggler-sent-packing-from-new-zealand-2016-3#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p>